Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla

Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla was born a Creole on the Corralejo hacienda near Penjamo, Guanajuato, on May 8, 1753. He was sent to Valladolid (now Morelia) to study at the San Nicolas Obispo College, where he later taught theology, philosophy and ethics, and eventually became college rector.

In 1792, he was ordained (he became a priest) and after working at different parishes, came to practice his ministry at the Parish of Dolores. He is a Mexican revolutionary priest that wanted the Independence for México and no more injustice for the poor people. He created and founded the Independence with Jose Maria Morelos y Pavon who thought same as Hidalgo. Both wanted Mexico to live in peace, love, tranquility and the most important of all, to unite people. He never liked slavery because the Mexican people suffered.

He and Jose Maria Morelos y Pavon joined a group of patriots, with liberal ideas, who in 1810, conspired in Querétaro in favor of the Independence of Mexico. Time passed and the government started forcing people to work so much and mistreating them. On August 30 Hidalgo got the entire town and his men together and started the War. Hidalgo won an outstanding victory at Monte de Las Cruces and then they decided to go to all the country and fight with the rest of politicians. Hidalgo and his men suffered a terrible defeat and they were forced to retreat northwards.

At midnight on September 16, 1810 he rang his parish bell in the city of Dolores and there he did his Grito to start the Independence. He spent part of his life fighting. The Mexican people called him “El Padre de la Patria” because he always defended the Mexican people and his patria. He always used one flag with the virgin “Maria de Guadalupe” because the Catholic people and almost all the Mexican people believe in her.

After the execution of the political leaders in Chihuahua, the insurgent movement would be ended. By 1821, the ideals fought for by Miguel Hidalgo and many other Mexicans for over eleven years of fighting finally won and the government stopped mistreating the people; so Mexico was free and independent. That’s why he is my hero; Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla is a patriot and freedom hero and all the people who fought with him, too.

And I choose him because I admire him and he makes real his goals and these are good reasons why Miguel Hidalgo is my hero. He thought different from the other people. In Mexico the people always remember him and the others who were with him. He is important to me because my parents are from Mexico and I grew up there.

He was executed and decapitated in Chihuahua on July 30, 1811 for saving us, the Mexican people. The modern Mexico celebrates and venerates him as the “Padre de la Patria” and the anniversary of his Grito is celebrated on September 16 as Mexico’s Independence Day. He is dead now but forever is going to be in my heart and I never want to forget him.